There are techniques known in the art for identifying the characteristics of target regions (object regions within a target region, for example) based on image data representing the original image. By correctly identifying characteristics of a target region, an image processor can perform image processing suited to these characteristics. According to one technology known in the art for identifying characteristics of original images, an image processor converts original image data (600 dpi, for example) to image data at a lower resolution (300 dpi, for example) in order to conserve memory space. Subsequently, the image processor identifies characteristics of original images using the low-resolution image data.